It
was on a faithful day while I was in class… two people were discussing just
next to me. They were talking about the Euros. Though I didn’t plan to join in
but I heard something that annoyed me! One of the guys was like “did u watch
the Netherlands vs. Portugal game” and his colleague replied “yea... That Dutch
team is useless. They have the quality players but don’t have a good coach”.
Initially I wanted to keep shut but I couldn't just help but ask him a simple
question. “Was it not the same manager that took this same thing to the final
of the world cup at South Africa 2 years ago? Well that’s how life is, one
little mistake you make will wipe out every good thing you’ve done.
Heading
into the Euros, the Netherlands were tipped to be one of the favorites to win
the tournament. Judging on their
performance at the South Africa and the euros qualifiers were the won all their
games, it seems perplexing that such a talented collective could be dumped out
of Euro 2012 with not a point to show for their endeavors.
It's
the first time for over two decades that the Oranje have lost three games
running. They looked so flat footed. So
how did it go so wrong? How did Bert Van Marwijk's men fail to make it through
to the quarter-finals? Here are some reasons.
Lack of Cohesion
Funny
enough the Netherlands are one of the few teams where each individual in the
lineup plays in a different team. From the goal-keeper who plays for Roma to
Sneijder for Inter and RVP for Arsenal, no of them are colleagues at club level.
Look at Spain for example, where Real Madrid- and Barcelona-players dominate.
The Holland squad had no club-teammates in their starting line-up against
Denmark, Germany and Portugal. You might want to say this is an invalid
argument/point. But it actually helps. Managing a team like this takes a lot of
difficulty. Here, then, you had a bunch of stars who did not cohere as a unit.
It
was even reported that Van der Wiel, the Ajax right back was always seen with
his headphones.
“He's running his own fashion line, working on his music
and getting his hair done every day. The players did not see him without
headphones on”
that was a report on the right back.
Robben
meanwhile was said to have isolated himself, maybe still causing himself for
the penalty miss against Chelsea in the champions league final. While Van
Persie reportedly acted as the star man in a team full of fine footballers and
exaggerated egos. Not leaving out Klaas Jan Huntelaar who was jealous of van
Persie for playing ahead of him Players that were also on the bench despite
being in top form didn’t hide their disappointment. Van der vaart had this to
say,
I have the right to speak out with 97 caps behind my
name. If Holland wants to win, the coach has to play me in the starting
line-up. I am no longer prepared to deny I am finding this role really tough.
Do you know how frustrated I feel?
Now,
if your squad is as divided as was reported before the Germany game, how could
the Dutch have expected to succeed?
To
achieve success, you compete as a team. You fight for each other and not your
own agenda.
Sadly,
the Dutch team that I saw during Euro 2012 was more a collection of individuals
than a team unit, and that's a sad, sad thing
2 Team Selection
based on sentiment
Midfielder, Van Bommel who is the son-in-law
to the coach looked to have passed his prime and should have been dropped after
the first game but seems to be playing because of the family tie. Van der vaart
should have been a better option and he showed them what they were missing when
he came on against Portugal.
Like I said in my previous article on the
Dutch team, the 60 year old tactician speaks his team based on sentiment. Quite
alright Van Persie was fantastic for Arsenal last season but he is not just the
right man for Oranje; reasons best known to him. He looked tired, leggy and
hesitant. Hunterlaar who was impressive in the qualifiers had to settle for the
bench. With a freer role, van Persie would have been able to affect the game
more and create more opportunities for the deadly Huntelaar.
If
he'd have started the game against Denmark, Huntelaar could have been the key
to Dutch success at Euro 2012.
A
goal scorer is the most difficult thing in the world to find.
The
Netherlands had one in their ranks, but only chose to play him when it was too
late.
Disastrous Defending
Jettro
Williems became the youngest player ever to star in the euros when he played
against Denmark. His inexperience coupled with bad defending from his defense
partners caused Holland. Both goals the Germans scored came in through the left
flank.
Holland's
other full back, Gregory van der Wiel, was almost as bad defensively. Several
lapses in concentration gave chances to his opponents and Premier League clubs
interested in him should re-assess whether they still want to splash the cash.
In the center of defence, it didn’t all go well either. You (as in Mathijsen)
simply can’t give Mario Gomez, a top class striker, such opportunities. The gap
between the six defending players and the four players up front became the same
length as the distance between the north and South Pole so the whole squad lost
control.
It
was even worse against Portugal. It was so clear that they could not match the
eccentric pace of Portugal’s Ronaldo and Nani and the midfield didn’t help out
as Nigel De Jong was left all alone in midfield. (Van Der Vaart and Sneijder
pushed up to assist the strikers)
The Group of Death
It
was dubbed the group of death and as expected, someone had to die. Holland were
the unlikely team. Look at GROUP A for example where we had the Czech Republic,
Russia, Poland and Greece. The eventual winners of the group which is Czech
lost their first game in an emphatic manner to Russia but they still topped the
group. After losing their first game against Denmark, they were stunned in the
second game by two moments of brilliance from Mario Gomez and then in form
Ronaldo put the final game to the coffin in the last game.
Arjen
Robben, arguably the worst player in the team was quoted to have said this,
"It's very difficult for us in this group, because there just too many big
egos. After the World Cup they may have become even bigger. That makes it hard
for us," the attacker said. Don't get me wrong here, I’m not
disputing the fact that the whole team played poorly, no. I’m just saying that
the group’s difficulty has contributed.
Misfiring Stars
The
Dutch came into the tournament, if not among the leading favorites, then
certainly highly fancied.
They
won their first nine qualifiers to reach the finals with ease and in Van Persie
and fellow striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had two players who had enjoyed
exceptional seasons with their club sides in England and Germany respectively.
Van
Persie was top scorer in the Premier League last season and netted 37 goals for
Arsenal in all competitions, while Huntelaar was overall top scorer in Euro
qualifying with 12 and led the Bundesliga with 29 goals for Schalke 04. Not to
mention others players like Sneijder, Van Der Vaart and Robben who could create
and score goals.
With
this star studded team, everyone would have expected the Dutch team bot to have
any issues with goal scoring but ironically, it became their biggest problem.
Against Denmark, Holland had 29 (!) shots, but only six of them were on target.
No goal. Meanwhile, the Danish took eight shots with four of them on target.
One goal. It seems like the strikers left their scoring boots at their clubs
before coming. Van Persie started all the game and failed to more than a goal.
Huntelaar was unused until the very last game when it was already too late and
robben who kept on doing the same thing even though it wasn’t working
Wrong tactics
Starting
Van Bommel and Van Der Vaart, two defensive minded midfielders with little or
nothing to offer up front was a little bit baffling. You might say it worked
for him at the world cup but it didn’t this time. After losing both games to
Germany and Denmark, ben marwijk decided to take a risk against Portugal. Knowing
that a 2-0 goal win over Portugal will see them scale through as long as
Denmark was defeated, he started about four attackers at the same time leaving
the midfield exposed.
Sneijder
wasn’t really effective on the left flank, van Persie started dropping too deep
to win the ball and Huntelaar had little or nothing. His tactics seemed to have
been working when van der vaart scored in the first 10mins. But it backfired
when Portugal started finding those little spaces behind the defensive line and
this allowed Portugal to exert pressure on the ball very high on the pitch, in
other words, on the Dutch defense, a pressure that was enhanced and sustained
by the directness of the Portuguese, who, when they won the ball, ran at the
Dutch defense and caused all kinds of problem. "We knew we had to win by a
two-goal margin so we had to take that risk and go forward," said
Van Marwijk.
"Sometimes it works and sometimes it
doesn't. I think we started quite well today and we scored after about 10
minutes. The Portuguese were tactically efficient; the Dutch were not.
The
disappointed Ben Marwijk even went further to say this after his disappointing
team display, “I knew all along that it would be very hard to go to the
quarter-final. I had the hope that we could bring another performance like two
years ago at the World Cup”, he concluded.
He
even went on to say that "If you want to accomplish something together,
you have to put egos aside. You have to fight as a team to regain that sense of
invincibility. It won't come by itself. Netherlands’ poor showings in the
European Championship has placed a question mark over the Dutch mentor’s future
at the Oranje. However, it would be an unwise choice to remove the 60-year-old
from the managerial post.
By Oluwole Ola
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wolexis
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oluwole.ola
